San Antonio refiner Andeavor fuels ‘obscene’ campaign...

1of 6San Antonio refiner Andeavor and Utah-based partner Savage Cos. wanted to develop this area of the Port of Vancouver in Washington into a crude-by-rail terminal. The push for the project, known as Vancouver Energy, was officially ended Tuesday.Photo: /Port of Vancouver USA

2of 6The locations marked in blue are where the proposed Vancouver Energy crude oil terminal would be built. Up to 360,000 barrels a day of crude oil would be able to enter the terminal and be shipped out.Photo: Courtesy of Port of Vancouver /

3of 6Ships wait in the Columbia River beside the Port of Vancouver. Andeavor and partner Savage Cos. want to build a crude-by-rail terminal at the Port of Vancouver, but the project has been met with resistance.Photo: STEVEN LANE /AP

4of 6In this June 2016 photo a tanker burns as other derailed tanker cars lay on railroad tracks near Mosier, Oregon. The oil was being transported from the Bakken shale oil field in North Dakota.Photo: Silas Bleakley /Associated Press

San Antonio refiner Andeavor is pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into a normally quiet port commissioner’s race on Tuesday that’s drawn an “obscene” amount of campaign contributions 1,700 miles across the country.

More than $1 million has been donated to two candidates vying for the open commissioner’s seat at the Port of Vancouver, Washington, where Andeavor and the Savage Cos. have been pushing to bring a $210 million, 360,000 barrel-a-day crude oil by rail terminal to the port since 2013.

It’s a part-time job that pays a $635 a month stipend and $114 per meeting for a 6-year term — about $10,000 or so a year. Whoever wins the race will hold the deciding vote on whether to renew or terminate the companies’ lease at the port. The companies are leasing 42 acres of land there while the state reviews the project.

Andeavor and Savage are backing Kris Greene, a Vancouver insurance agent who’s previously backed the terminal. They’ve given him $370,000 of his $594,000 in total campaign contributions through the companies’ joint venture, Vancouver Energy, according to records from the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission’s website.

Terminating the lease could subject “Vancouver taxpayers and residents to significant litigation and financial liability even before the state’s environmental evaluations have been completed,” Greene said in a September statement. He was unavailable for an interview.

His opponent, auto repair shop owner Don Orange, has said he opposes the terminal and plans to vote against the land lease between the Port, Andeavor and Savage. Orange has raised more than $413,000, about $290,000 of which came from the Washington Conservation Voters Action Fund.

“I talk about building on port property and … my opponent is in favor of that,” Orange said in a phone interview. “The chief difference between us is that he’s a vigorous supporter and is financed by the oil company, and I’m not.”

The proposed terminal would see up to four crude oil trains a day that would ship 360,000 barrels of petroleum from North Dakota’s Bakken shale oil field and other fields into Vancouver. Six tanks with a total capacity of more than 2.1 million barrels would store the oil, which would be transferred to waiting ships and sent to West Coast refineries.

The port commissioners’ race is going down as the most expensive in the Port’s recent history with the campaigns spending more than $876,000 combined. It’s an unusual amount of money to spend on a race in a city with a population of 174,826 and a port with a projected 2017 operating revenue of $37 million.

Candidates in the 2017 commissioners’ race at the much larger Port of Seattle have raised more than $579,000 in contributions. Candidates for another commissioners race at the Port of Tacoma have raised more than $300,000 in contributions.

Port of Vancouver commissioners race saw eight candidates vie for the District 2 commissioner’s seat in 2015. All told, they spent $197,501 of the $208,340 raised.

State representative Sharon Wylie, who represents central and western Vancouver in Washington’s 49th Legislative District, including the terminal’s proposed location, called the amount of money raised “obscene on both sides” and says the large infusions of cash from Andeavor and Savage has left “a bad taste in people’s mouths.”

Wylie has endorsed Orange in the commissioners race.

State senator Lynda Wilson, who represents eastern Vancouver in the 17th Legislative District, has endorsed Greene and called the race “unusual.”

“That’s a lot of money for a local race,” she said. “But it is our ports that are important and … we do need to make sure that we move forward and do have good development in that port.”

Vancouver Energy says the project will create 320 construction jobs, according to Jeff Hymas, a spokesman for Vancouver Energy and the communications director for Savage. Terminal operations would create an additional 176 on-site jobs and 440 off-site jobs once complete, he said.

Hymas said in an email that Greene “is more than a single issue candidate and understands the importance of creating opportunities for family-wage jobs and economic growth in Vancouver and Southwest Washington.”

“We also appreciate that Kris supports the established review process to ensure that our facility can, and will, be built and operated in a safe and environmentally responsible way,” Hymas said.

The Port of Vancouver, located on the Columbia River 100 miles from the Pacific, currently brings in mostly automobiles and steel and ships out various types of metals and food stuffs, according to the Port’s most recent commodities report. The nearest Andeavor refinery is in Anacortes, Washington, 195 miles to the north.

Kate Griffith, spokeswoman for Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission, said the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council is in the final stages of reviewing the project. The EFSEC has until Nov. 30 to complete its review and make a recommendation to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. The governor will make the final decision on whether or not to allow the project to move forward.

Going back to 2007, the earliest that online records are available, port commissioner races either were unopposed or had two candidates raising a few thousand dollars, at the most. The exceptions are the 2015 and 2007 race, when two District 3 candidates raised over $47,000.

In 2015, the Washington Conservation Voters contributed more than $103,000 to the winning candidate Eric Labrant, who raised more than $134,000. Labrant made a failed bid in September to terminate the Port’s lease with Andeavor and Savage.

Andeavor, then Tesoro Corp., contributed at least $8,675 to the losing candidate, Lisa Ross, that year. Savage Services Corp., which lists the same address as Savage Cos.’ headquarters, donated $2,500 to Ross’ campaign.

In early September, Greene described the first infusion of money from Vancouver Energy, a $75,000 amount, as a “big boost” and said that he “supports the process and the lease provided it passes environmental reviews.”

Orange said without the influx of money from the Washington Conservation Voters, he likely wouldn’t be in the race.

“Their ideas do not conflict with having a robust, vigorous 21st century port operating here and if they did I would tell them I wouldn’t take their money,” he said.

Money has flooded into the race partly because there aren’t spending limits for individual contributions, which only exist for port districts with more than 200,000 registered voters, like Seattle and Tacoma. Limits for individual contributions in those races are set at $2,000.

Wylie said she will be introducing a bill to limit individual contributions into smaller port races due to the Port of Vancouver race.

Wilson worries that if the lease is canceled, as Orange says he will push for, the port will suffer long-term ramifications.

“What other businesses are going to come in and risk their investment if they think the rug could be pulled out from under them?” Wilson asked.

Wylie doesn’t believe that an oil terminal is the route forward for the future of the city.

“We would like to be focused more on renewables, so a lot of our businesses, a lot of our education system, a lot of our economic goals are more linked to renewables than to the oil industry,” she said.

Some worry a repeat of a 2016 incident in Mosier, Oregon, when a train carrying Bakken crude oil derailed. The derailment led to a fire that consumed at least one rail car, according to the Oregonian. No one was injured in the derailment and ensuing fire.

Orange cites the Mosier incident and worries about a similar accident in Vancouver. Regardless of how the election pans out, Orange believes that the issue will end up in the courts.

“I believe that whatever happens, the jobs that have been generated by this proposal so far have largely been for lawyers, and that whatever happens at this stage or other stages, we’ll end up in court,” he said. “It would be shocking to me otherwise.”

This story was updated to correct the number of estimated jobs that would be created through the Vancouver Energy project.

Rye Druzin is a business reporter who has reported in Texas since he moved to Midland in August 2014. He covers CPS Energy, refiners, manufacturing and oil and gas for the business desk. A native Californian, Rye earned his bachelors of arts in International Affairs from Lewis & Clark College in 2013.